Rusty

My house is now a dog free zone. You won't need to check your pants at my door and I won't have to vacuum my life away. There's a feeling of relief and sadness all at once. To be completely honest, the scale might tip toward the relief side a tad until I think of how Brynner might react, then it crashes toward the sad side (so far he hasn't even asked about him). For all I know Brynn may be happy to not get smacked in the face with a tail every day or occasionally get trampled over so Rusty can make a run for it out the door. I still worry, who is going to fulfill his daily dog interactions? Who is he going to laugh at, climb over, and get his clothes covered in hair with? Who can he use as a stepping stool, get his hands cleaned by, and give his graham crackers to? Who will he tell to sit or tap his foot by a crumb and say, "Here Rusty!" while being totally ignored? Who will he give hugs and pats to or make sure I know, "He has a pee pee!" every. single. day. Sorry Brad looks like I'm off the hook for two very good reasons.

1) I don't have a pee pee.

2) My pregnant belly shouldn't be consuming any more crumbs or leftover graham crackers then it already is.

Jess and Nate {pause} Grad-u-ate!

I nearly ruined the surprise of Jess and Nate's graduation invitations when I posted these pictures prematurely. Lickedly split, I took it off for later postage-crisis averted. The only problem is I was eating an Almond Joy when this was originally posted last week and now I'm not, which makes the very first line a big fat lie. And if there is something I can't stand, it's a lie. So in full disclosure I just had to say, no, I'm not eating an Almond Joy right this very second (even though I wish I was). Please read on...

Original Post:

I'm eating an Almond Joy (yes right this very second-don't hate) that was gifted to me by dear Jessica. See, we're connected on deep telepathic mind powers and she felt that I needed one today. That, or she's just super thoughtful and nice. My only hope is these pictures bring as much enjoyment to her and Nate as this candy bar brings to me. (Between us, I don't know if that's possible) Give the super nice Jessica and super jumper Nate (good form) your applause as they celebrate graduating! With degrees and everything!!!

Baby Tilly

I was editing some pictures I took recently of baby Tilly and had to share a couple...because LOOK at those eyes! Seriously. Gorgeous. She wouldn't go to sleep for anything so after three hours or so of trying we called it quits and will try again soon to get some sleeping ones. Amy and Zach, you make the cutest-wide awake-babies ever! :)

The dryer

One day Brad and I heard a noise. We were newly weds living in our condo on the top floor. I had heard something similar earlier so we intensely listened to figure out where it was coming from. We soon heard it again and both ran to our bathroom where our washer and dryer lived. Again we heard it and this time I jumped up on the toilet while Brad started to poke around. We, or rather He, narrowed it down to our dryer and were both a little freaked out (some more then others) about what thing could be in our dryer. Brad flung the door open and jumped back! No creature came lunging out so he inched forward to get a better look. Empty. We heard it again and it was definitely coming from the dryer, just the back of the dryer where the ducting was. I was certain it was a mouse.

Info somewhat related to the story: Mice are my nemesis. They have tortured this country girl as long as I can remember. They ate my Easter candy, they ruined my sweater, they ran across my bare feet, and certainly the most damaging, my brother ran after me while holding dead mice by their tails. It's a real shocker why I dislike them so.

So back to the dryer. Brad turned it on hoping to scare what ever it was, out the way it had come in. All we heard was a loud clank and then silence. Brad pulled out the dryer while I stood on the toilet letting out squeals of paranoia every 20 seconds (it would know I didn't have socks on and run for my feet!) He took out the ducting hose and found a poor little dead bird missing a head. We had killed it when Brad turned on the dryer (we didn't know it would cut the poor things head off!)and for the record we felt really bad (some more then others)and super grossed out (some more then others). Who wants to dry their clean clothes where a bird was brutally murdered? After a lot of Clorox wipes we felt a little better (some more then others). So let that be a lesson to you on this sixth day of April two thousand and ten. Do not, under any circumstance, turn on your dryer to scare creatures out. It won't end pretty.

Have you ever killed a woodland creature via your dryer? The bird goes on my list of a rabbit, a raccoon, and a baby deer :(

P.S. The way I worded the above paragraph, I feel inclined to stress the dryer wasn't involved in any of the other incidents. Cause that would be weird. I mean, killing one animal in your dryer is one thing....but four animals would definitely be considered a problem.